This invention relates to a cap to be put on a shaker for e.g. salt or pepper.
A cap of this type includes a cylindrical cap body to be put on the mouth of a shaker container. The cap body has a top wall formed with a plurality of holes through which the content of the shaker is shaken out. The holes are closed by a cover. Caps of this type are disclosed e.g. in unexamined Japanese patent publication 6-54747, examined Japanese utility model publication 4-15663, and unexamined Japanese patent publication 6-227555.
The cap disclosed in the first publication has a cover which has to be pushed up and down by hand to open and close it. The cover has to be pushed up or down with one hand while holding the container with the other hand. This is troublesome.
The cap disclosed in the second publication has a lever. By pressing the lever, the cover opens fairly smoothly. But the cover has to be closed by pushing it down by hand as with the cover of the first publication. Also, this cap is complicated in structure.
The cap disclosed in the third publication is shown in FIG. 10. It has a press button 1 and a cover 5 coupled to the button 1 through a push rod 3 and a changeover rod 4. By pressing the button 1 against the force of a spring 2, the cover 5 pivots from the closed position shown by solid line to the open position shown by chain line. When the button 1 is pressed again, the cover 5 pivots back to the closed position. Thus, the cover 5 can be opened and closed by pressing the single button 1. The trouble of this cap is that the button has to be pressed in different ways to open and close the cover, and thus the container has to be gripped in different ways. Another problem is its extremely complicated structure.
In many cases, cooks, both amateurs and pros, handle a shaker with one hand while holding a pot or a pan with the other hand. Thus, shakers which can be easily handled with one hand are desired.
An object of this invention is to provide a cap for a shaker which is simple in structure and has a cover which can be easily opened and closed.